The last few months I’ve been seeing beer and yoga events everywhere I look. Victory Brewing Company has been hosting them monthly. In April, Joe Sixpack and his wife held a beer and yoga event.

I immediately get excited when I see these events and want to go because I love beer and I love yoga. Then my brain gets in the way. I start to wonder what type of yoga the class will be. Is it going to be a fast paced vinyasa style class? Or will it be a slower paced class that is more just stretching out? Am I going to hate the instructor?

I know – I probably sound insane. The one thing I’ve learned from taking various fitness classes is it’s important to find a teacher and style you enjoy. Granted, one day/class, probably shouldn’t be analyzed so much, but I hate to feel like I’m wasting money on a class I’m not enjoying.

But I digress.

When I found out that my favorite yoga teacher was hosting a beer and yoga event at Maha Yoga in Philadelphia I was sold.

Maha Yoga is a new yoga studio in Philadelphia, and right after they opened, a few doors down, The Corner Foodery opened. The Foodery has a very large selection of craft beer available for sale by the bottle (I recently found Bell’s Oberon there). The two joined forces to offer a yoga class followed by a beer tasting.

This event was my first class at the studio. I was impressed at how nice and comfortable the studio is. The classroom has window’s on 3 of the 4 walls, which provided a lot of natural light. I was very nervous going into the class. Maha specializes in one hour yoga classes, which means classes are faster paced than what I’m used. Once the class started, I found the pace to be a nice balance. It was definitely a work-out, but not so fast that I felt rushed or couldn’t keep up. The only downside is that with the increased pace of the class, I think it lacked in the little tips that can guide people to easier versions of the poses. I spoke with some people after the class who were new to yoga and they mentioned that they struggled a bit, but really enjoyed the class (and the beer).

Speaking of beer, once the class ended those signed up for the beer tasting walked over to the Foodery. They had four local craft beers for everyone to taste. The beer’s were: Stoudt’s Karnival Kolsch, Sly Fox’s Dunkel Larger, Twin Lakes’ Greenville Pale Ale, and Lancaster Brewing Company Rumspringa. They went over each of the beers with us before we tasted them.

While we drank there was great conversation. And I found two new beers I really like (the Sly Fox and the Lancaster Brewing Co beers we tried). The studio has several more of the events coming up – the next one is during Philly Beer Week with Brooklyn Brewery. Yoga and beer anyone?

Hard cider from Delaware?  Are you kidding?  Well it’s true.  Great Shoals, an award-winning winery, of Mount Vernon, Maryland connected with T.S. Smith and Sons from Bridgeville, Delaware,  a 106 year old family run farm.  At the same time, the Smiths were looking for someone to answer their customer’s inquiries for a Delaware cider.  Matt Cimino from Great Shoals paid the Bridgeville farm a visit during apple harvest and found an ideal apple that Delmarva Apple lovers have grown to love, The Black Twig.

The Black Twig, a favorite of Andrew Jackson,  started it’s journey around 1830 near Fayetteville, Tennessee on a farm of Major Rankin Toole.  It’s popularity grew into the 20th century in Virginia and North Carolina, and of course Delaware.  Black Twigs have been covering the Bridgeville orchard for over 80 years.

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My road to Philadelphia’s Broad Street Run this year was bumpy. I went into the race with mixed emotions, but in the end, it was the most amazing experience. Runners and spectators came together with a high energy and support for Boston, that made Philadelphia shine and highlighted the City Of Brotherly Love.

Broad Street is the largest 10 mile road race in the U.S. bringing approximately 40,000 runners into Philadelphia every year. With runners and cities still trying to find ways to cope with what happened in Boston, I was worried that the race was going to lose some of its heart. Philadelphia was quick to announce increases in security and new procedures for gear/bag check. The race organizers encouraged runners to wear red socks during the race; and local running stores were quick to meet the demand for socks, many of them donating proceeds to One Fund Boston (to help the people most affected by the events in Boston). During the race expo, runners were also given Philly Love Boston stickers (in the photo above) to wear over their hearts.

Broad Street was not originally on my race schedule. This year they instituted a new lottery system for the race registration. There were a lot of questions about how the system would work, and information was not released too much before the registration date. Instead of stressing out over the lottery, I decided to sign up for another race. Then in late March, Broad Street had a sweepstakes to win entry into the race. I entered thinking I would never win, got busy with work, and the email notifying me that I had won sat in my inbox for several days before I opened it. My jaw dropped when I read I had won.

I registered myself and contacted friends about getting onto a bus that gets runners to and from the race, and also provides beer and water. I figured since I didn’t have any close friends running in Broad Street, strangers with beer with the next best thing. Then the stress began to set in. Since I added Broad Street to my calendar of races, it meant that between April 29 and June 16 I would be doing 5 races; two 5K’s, two 10 mile races, and one half-marathon. Sound crazy? It is.

Enough about me, onto the race.
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